Monday, June 27, 2011

Double Heelix: Taming your yarns

As the first wave of early adopters casts on their Double Heelix projects, another question many of them have been asking is: "how do you keep those 4 strands from becoming a tangled mess?"

Well, it does take a little doing, but less than you might think. There are three things I do that seem to keep the tangle at bay.

#1: Maintain consistent yarn positions relative to the work. This project is not a good one to knit while on the go. You can't toss all your yarn into one bag or basket without asking for trouble.

So, if you're this dude...Your yarn 4 balls would be placed like so, relative to your work (and your person).

#2 Twist your work in the opposite direction that the yarn twists.As demonstrated by this quick (0:20) Youtube video.

#3 If all else fails...The little balls of yarn should be small enough that you can unwind them and pull the all the way out of the tangle. Then you can manually disengage the 2 large yarn balls from each other, and then wind up your small balls again.